


Poker Night

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Sentinel Thursday, prompt ancestors</p>
    </blockquote>





	Poker Night

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday, prompt ancestors

Poker Night

by Bluewolf

The weekly poker game was in full swing when Joel said, "You know, I've always wondered... "

"Go on," Blair encouraged.

"Do any of you know where your ancestors came from?"

"How far back?" Blair asked.

"As far back as family 'history' goes. Of course, that could be just grandparents or great-grandparents... "

"The way you're speaking... Does that mean you know where your family came from?" Blair asked.

"Yes, at least on my mother's side." When Joel put down his cards, the others did too. "Originally her forebears - two brothers - came from Senegal, sold into slavery in what had to have been the late 1700s by their rulers, who didn't have the foresight to realize that selling many of their subjects might give them wealth for a few years but would ultimately impoverish them because there would be nobody left to work the land. They ended up on a plantation here, still, surprisingly, together, and sheer luck - an owner with some degree of compassion - kept them together. Both had families, and in time two of the cousins married; I'm in direct descent from the oldest of their children. I don't know if the other siblings told their families of their origins, but the story was passed down from parent to child in my family."

"Sold by their own rulers," Blair muttered. "Bastards!"

"Slavery was a way of life back then," Joel said.

"Yes - people taken captive in war, or enslaved for debt, things like that - but deliberately sold by their own rulers... And yes, I did know that," he added. "You can't study anthropology and not know... "

"Anyway," Joel went on, "when Lincoln abolished slavery, my family was freed and their ex-owner helped them move to the north where they were able to get paid work.

"Simon? Can you add anything?"

Simon shook his head. "Not about how my family came to America. My great-great-great grandfather was an escaped slave - made his way to Canada by the underground railway. He came back into the United States to fight in the civil war, and when it ended, he decided to stay - went back into Canada long enough to get his wife and their children, then moved back into the States, came to Washington, settled in Rossberg. My generation moved out - I came to Cascade, one brother went to California - he's been out of touch for years; the other moved to New York, I've got a sister in Denver... my parents decided to move too, and they live with her. I think I still have two or three cousins in Rossberg, but I lost touch with them, too, years ago.

"What about you, H?"

"My family were effectively slaves right up until world war one, even though slavery was officially ended in 1865 - after that they were sharecroppers. Nominally free, but... My grandfather joined the army in 1917, and it changed his life. After he left the army he moved north, came to Washington - and here I am.

"Rafe?"

Rafe shrugged. "I know my family moved to Africa from the Netherlands, but I don't know just when or where they settled, though I suspect it had to have been South Africa - that was where the Boers were, after all. My father relocated to San Francisco when I was a baby - I've got no memory of Africa at all, and he never said much, though the little he did say - I think he was opposed to apartheid. After I did my cop training, I moved to here.

"Jim?"

"Family history has it that an Ellison was on the Mayflower, though I'm not sure I ever believed that. But we were certainly early immigrants from Britain - we were here before 1675. That's the earliest date in the family bible. I believe we stayed on the east coast until early this century, when my grandfather moved west." Deliberately leaving Blair till last, he looked at the one woman in their group. "Megan?"

She chuckled. "You're looking at a descendant of a convict. My great-great-great grandfather was transported to Australia at some point in the late 1840s for theft - he was just ten. According to family history, he'd been stealing food for his mother and three younger siblings - his father was dead, his mother had broken her leg and couldn't work, and there was no way a ten-year-old could earn enough money to support a family of five. So he stole food, but he was caught... Luckily he didn't have much on him - a little more and he could have been given a death sentence. Once he'd served his time as a convict he was able to get work with a free settler. He worked hard, saved, and eventually started up his own shop. Once he was his own master he tried to find out what had happened to his mother and siblings, but it was years later, and he couldn't find any trace of them."

Jim nodded.

All eyes turned to Blair. "What?" he asked.

"So what's your family history, Blair?" Jim asked. "And you can't try to turn the subject around - we've all come clean. Now it's your turn."

Blair shook his head. "Would you believe, I don't know?"

"No, we wouldn't believe that," Simon said.

"Well, I don't know who my father is, right? So that side is a no-hoper. And on my mother's side? There's just Naomi. You've met her; you know what she's like. She doesn't care about history. The past is gone, finished; memories of the past, even your own past, just clutter up your mind. Live for today is her motto. She's... happy that I opted for an academic career, but she'd be happier if I joined her wandering around the world, no ties, no responsibilities... She lives quite frugally, but she doesn't have to - she has plenty of money, wherever it came from - she's never told me, and I suspect she plans to spend it all so that she won't 'burden' me with it. She's certainly never given me any. I went through Rainier, before they gave me a stipend as a TA, on scholarships, grants, working weekends and evenings... My cousin Robert - he's no wiser than I am. His parents never told him anything and they're dead now, so we can't ask them.

"I never knew my grandparents. We do - or did - have cousins in Forth Worth, who might know something of our family history - but we lost touch with them years ago.

"I regret not knowing anything about my family history - but the only person who could tell me something won't. It happened to other people, who are gone now. She doesn't think it's important, of any value to us, and there's no way you could persuade her that it's anything other than empty, unimportant 'knowledge'." He looked round the circle of his friends. "I envy you all, knowing something of your family history - even Rafe; you mightn't know much but you know a little. All I know is that when she was young, Naomi lived for a while as a hippie. I don't even know if that part of her life was particularly long. Knowing her, I suspect it wasn't. That it was just for a few months - long enough for her to find out what it was like. And then she moved on."

He glanced down and picked up his cards. "We're here to play poker. Let's get on with it."


End file.
